1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle collision decision apparatus, and more particularly to a vehicle collision decision apparatus that activates a vehicle occupant protection device based on accelerations detected by a plurality of acceleration detectors mounted on the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, vehicles are equipped with airbags, which serve as restraint devices for protecting vehicle occupants from injury in the event of a vehicle collision. One known vehicle collision decision apparatus for activating curtain airbags, which form a type of airbag restraint, is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-018744, for example.
According to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-018744, acceleration sensors for detecting transverse accelerations of a vehicle are mounted in side panels near the front seats of the vehicle, in side panels near the rear seats of the vehicle, and in a transversely central region of the vehicle. The curtain airbags are activated based on accelerations detected by the respective acceleration sensors.
If the vehicle hits an object in a one-sided head-on collision, i.e., a so-called offset collision, and the direction in which the hitting vehicle is retracted from the hit object is oblique to the direction in which the hitting vehicle has traveled prior to the collision, then the curtain airbags possibly may not be activated, due to the relationship between the installed positions of the acceleration sensors and the direction in which the acceleration sensors have detected the accelerations.